Boys Ranch staff produce face shields for area responders

AGN Media

Saturday

Apr 18, 2020 at 9:00 PM

A team of three adult mentors at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch are currently responding to a worldwide request to produce face shields for their medical communities.

“Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch has long taught our young people that in any situation, if there is a way to use your talents to help your community, it’s important to do so. Right now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boys Ranch youth are seeing this philosophy in action,” a news release says.

Face shields limit exposure to the coronavirus and provide an additional layer of protection over the whole face. According to the release, a team of Boys Ranch technology coordinators have joined the global community of 3D printer operators who are producing face shields for area frontline responders.

“Our youth realize now how what they have been learning can be used to help others,” said Phillip Miller, coordinator of technology and one of the mentors who provide experiential learning opportunities for Boys Ranch youth. Also helping with this effort are Barre Wheatley, emerging technology coordinator, and Scotty Wright, who teaches welding technologies.

Thanks to support of donors, the Boys Ranch STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Lab is equipped with five 3D printers. With youth not in school while practicing social distancing, the STEAM lab and its printers were available for face shield production.

The STEAM lab is producing 20 face shield headbands at a time, and each print session takes about 18 hours to complete. Miller said that the Boys Ranch STEAM lab will print, assemble and ship face shields as long as the filament plastic stock on hand lasts.

After providing the initial prototypes to the Boys Ranch Volunteer Fire Department and the campus clinic staff, Miller and his team began tackling requests from neighboring EMS and fire departments and other medical facilities, the news release says.

“We have orders from AMR in Dalhart, Adrian Fire, Vega Fire, Dalhart Fire,” Miller said, adding more face shields will be distributed in the next few days.

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